Goldfish Fancy

[FishyFishy89]

Olympia, your goldies would love it if my floaters would over taken my 75 gallon. They'll get some free snacks!

[Olympia]

Hehe, I am hoping that when pond season comes around I will find some interesting surface plants for them. :D

[finnfinnfriend]

I keep trying to tell myself I don't want goldfish, but I keep going back to wanting them!

[Artemis]

I'm sorry but to much is wrong here! Fancies WILL DIE in water to hot, 65-75 with 68 is preferred temps. Reduce feeding at 60 and stop when temps hit about 30. Commons do FINE in indoor aquariums. 20 gal for the first common, 10 after that, 10 per fancy.

[Olympia]

That may have been true 20 years ago but as with all areas of fish keeping, our knowledge has grown and we have better practice to raising these fish now. ;)

[thekoimaiden]

Originally Posted by Artemis

I'm sorry but to much is wrong here! Fancies WILL DIE in water to hot, 65-75 with 68 is preferred temps. Reduce feeding at 60 and stop when temps hit about 30. Commons do FINE in indoor aquariums. 20 gal for the first common, 10 after that, 10 per fancy.

Wow... Then my fancies should have been long dead by now. They've been in 76F water for months now. Pretty sure Olimpia keeps hers around 78F. No problems from either of our tanks. Goldfish are much more temp-tolerant than most people think. Fishbase.org lists goldfish as being able to tolerate up to 104.5F temps. And many do fine in full sun ponds that get above 80F in the summer.

I would never feed my fish down to 30F. Almost all sources for pond fish recommend stopping feeding between 55F and 50F. Below those temps the GI tract doesn't work fast enough to digest all of that food before it begins to decay. This can and does cause fish to die.

I don't think a 12 inch fish would be very happy in a 55 or even 75 gal tank. Those tanks are only a few inches wider than the fish is long. Unless you're willing to custom-build something wide enough or buy a 200+ gal tank then I don't think you could provide a good PERMANENT indoor home for common goldfish.

If you think what we have said is so wrong, please provide sources to back up what you are saying.

[Bombalurina]

This is a picture of why a common would not be happy in a 20 gallon. This tank is a 23 gallon, and that fish a is a 10-inch long comet. He's only got twice the length of his body to swim in, and if he faces the front of his tank, his tail brushes the back.

[homegrown terror]

^plus in so little water he'd need POWERFUL filtration that would be disturbing even for a current-loving fish.

[Kithy]

My oranda seems entirely content in his 76ish water so... I'm fine. They may be cold water fish but they are incredibly hardy and adaptable. He'll be getting an upgrade to 29gallons from 20gallons soon enough. :) But commons/comets are really meant to be in exceptionally large tanks (maybe 100gallon could keep one happy enough) or in ponds with koi, where my comet is now.

There are many ways to keep a fish happy and healthy so it's not that we're "wrong", we are just "different". As long as our fish are healthy, growing, eating and happy... we're doing everything right.

[Hadoken Kitty]

OMG I'm so glad that I found this thread!!! I want to get a bubble eye goldfish. I've read that they actually do better as loners since their eyes are so delicate. I want to do the best that I can in taking care of this fish, so please let me know what I need to do that is abnormal from other goldfish.

I see that they grow from 6 to 8 inches in length...so will a 20 gallon be okay if it's just the one fish? People always say 10 gallons per extra goldfish....so could I even get away with 10 gallons if it's just the one goldfish? I plan to use sand as substrate. No decorations would be best so it doesn't poke it's eye sac, right?